Are You----?
by Ms. Loki Quinn-Sutcliff
Summary: Crossover. Loki, after being tortured by Thanos and the Chitauri until he loses himself, ends up in Wonderland, with a new "name"- Alice. With this name comes a "task", which when done provides the "key". Will he earn the "key" and find himself again? Or will Thor and the Avengers find him first? h/c, flashbacks/mentions of torture and non-con, post Avengers,pre Thor the Dark World
1. Prologue

Hello. This is my first fanfiction after about two years of a break, so hopefully my writing skills have improved. ^.^ This story draws on inspiration- for everything in Wonderland and the "Alice" concept- from the live-action movie directed by Tim Burton and a manga series titled "Are You Alice?" (which is also sorta where the title for this fic comes from, haha). I highly recommend that you read the manga if you have not yet done so. Also, I do not own Marvel or Alice in Wonderland. Anyway, on to the story!

"Are You _?"

Prologue - Starting from THE END

 _Pain, agony, suffering. Pain, agony, suffering. Pain, agony- pain pain pain painpainpainpain._

He could feel nothing but pain. He knew nothing but pain. He _was_ nothing but pain. No, no not pain, what was pain? Pain was bad… Or was it? No, pain was… Pain was sweeter than this. But then, what was this? What was _he_? He didn't know, he couldn't think, couldn't remember. _Who am I? Who am I? Who am I?_

 _"_ _Monster."_ Yes, that's right, isn't it?

 _"_ _Jotun runt."_ But wasn't he something else-…..."Asgardian"? No, he was… stolen. A relic. Or was he? No, he must be. Yes, disgusting Jotun runt.

 _"_ _Worthless."_

 _"_ _Unworthy."_

 _"_ _Mistake."_

Yes, all of these things. This is him, and it hurts, it hurts so much, hurts even more than the Chitauri, than Thanos, literally ripping him apart and putting him back together, over and over and _over and over and over-_

 _Who am I?_

 _"_ _Loki…"_

 _Who-?_

 _"_ _Loki, where are you?"_

 _Loki? Am I "Loki"? Who is calling me "Loki"? Is that my-_

They had his arm again, pulling and digging their claws in and slashing and he could _feel_ every muscle tear and cut and it was too much, too much, he didn't want to _feel_ anymore-

They were grabbing his hips and he _felt_ them violating him-

They were tearing into his back, ripping until their hands came out through his stomach and he could no longer even scream or plead, he could only _feel it-_

 _"_ _Loki."_

 _Who am I?_


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Truth is Stranger Than_

 _Bright. It's so bright. No, it can't be "bright", because everything is "dark"._

 _What is "bright"? "Bright" comes from… From light…_

 _Light…_

He opened his eyes, only to immediately close them tightly again. Sunlight was streaming down from the sky, washing over him-

 _Light? Sunlight! Wait, the sun?!_

He lifted his sore, weary hands to rub at his eyes. Then he tried to open them again to look around. After having been in the dark for so long, it was painful to look around in the light, but he couldn't help wanting to, _needing_ to- part fear of what may come, part curiosity at the change.

 _Where am I?_

He was lying in a lovely place, in soft green grass and wildflowers, and if he turned his head to the left- which was rather difficult as his neck was very stiff- he could see a shining blue lake. It was so pleasantly warm in the sunlight, so much so that it made him rather sleepy, yet he wondered if the lake was cool. Did cool, pleasant water exist, or was that just something his mind imagined in order to take his mind off the boiling water they dunked him in and made him drink? He then wondered if he could even _get_ to the lake. His body felt stiff, yet in a good way- as if he had napped in one position for a long time. He tried to see if he could sit up, and was delighted to discover he could without much trouble. He stretched, reveling in the feeling. He slowly got to his feet- how long had it been since he last moved around like this of his own will? Had he ever even done so before? He couldn't recall, but doing so felt familiar, so he assumed he had. He swayed for a bit, his body still frail and his head a bit dizzy, but after a moment this passed. He took a tentative step forward, flinching once he had, not knowing whether or not such a thing would be punished. Then he remembered that he had only noticed himself here, and looking around confirmed to himself that he was alone. He felt himself smile- another thing he feels he must have done before, though he can't quite recall- and oh how wonderful this all is. Before he even realized what he was doing, he was walking, then running and skipping even though he was still sore and oh-so-tired. Then he suddenly stopped- he had heard a sound and for a moment he was scared. Then he realized that the sound had come from him. What was that? What was it called again? A…. A laugh. Laughter. Yes, that's what it was! And it felt so marvelous to laugh, even though it came out raspy and a touch weak, so he did so again, the silence around him broken by his overjoyed laughter. Giddy, he ran to the edge of the lake and knelt by the water, giggling still. Hesitating, yet eager, he slowly reached out with a too-thin hand, and dipped his fingers into the water. It was cool and smooth. He sucked in a breath at the feeling of it. He smiled in pure joy- it was _divine_. Then he suddenly jumped back- he had seen a face in the water. When, after a few moments, nothing emerged from the water, he slowly moved back to look again. He saw the face again, staring back at him with both fear and wonder, and realized it was his own. This was "him". The face was pale, and so thin that it was nearly skeletal. The green eyes were dull and lifeless -in the back of his head he thought at one point they might have been bright- and they had dark circles underneath. They had not let him sleep unless he fell unconscious, which unfortunately didn't happen very often. The midnight hair framing the face was filthy and unkempt, past his shoulder blades in length. He wondered if it used to be shorter. He wasn't sure if he liked his face, but he supposed it wasn't frightening like their faces, at least.

 _Who am I?_

 _What is my-_

A rustling sound to his right startled him, and he turned quickly to look. He saw a small white creature- a rabbit. He smiled and relaxed, watching it, only to be confused a moment later when the rabbit pulled out a watch from its waistcoat pocket and looked at it worriedly.

 _A watch? A waistcoat? Rabbits don't have such things- do they?_

He was even more perplexed when he heard the rabbit speak.

"Oh dear! This will never do! I'm going to be late!" The rabbit tucked its watch back into its waistcoat pocket and started to run off, into the woods behind them. He got up and ran after it, all the while thinking how curious it was that a rabbit had a watch and a waistcoat and could talk.

 _Where is it going, I wonder?_

He followed the rabbit to a very large maple tree, and saw it dive into the rabbit-hole between the roots, which was also curiously large- far too large to be necessary for the rabbit. He came to a stop by the edge of the rabbit-hole and knelt by it. He looked down, but couldn't see anything but darkness. He shied away at first, not wanting to be back in the dark again, but his curiosity got the better of him and he leaned forward, his hands on the edge of the rabbit-hole for support.

"H…. H…. Hel-lo? H-hello?" He called softly- it had been a very long time since he had last spoken, and it was a bit difficult to remember how to form words. "M-mr. Rab-bit?" He heard his own voice echo- how far down did this rabbit-hole go? He leaned forward a bit more.

"H-hello? Hel- AH!" His hand slipped, and with a scream he tumbled forward into the darkness of the rabbit-hole.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2: DRINK(drown)ME

He was falling, and he was terrified. Was he going to hit the ground and die? Or would he lay there, returned to the state of horrid agony due to injuries he would receive from the collision? Which was worse? He shut his eyes tight and tried to brace himself-

One… Two… Three… Four seconds ticked by, and still no impact. He hesitantly opened one eye and saw no ground rushing up to meet him- rather the rabbit-hole seemed to go down for miles. He had enough time to look around, and was astonished by what he saw.

 _How very, very curious this is. Is this still the rabbit-hole?_

Shelves were helter-skelter along the walls, and some things seemed to float in midair- jars, pictures in frames, oil lamps, books, and the like. He managed to catch a jar of something called "orange marmalade" as he fell past it and was able to open it. He dipped a finger inside and tasted it. It was delicious- he couldn't remember the last time he had eaten anything at all, let alone something so pleasant and sweet- and he wanted more than anything to eat up the whole jar's worth, but he decided against it.

 _No, that would be rather rude. And besides, what if the owner became angry with me?_

He placed the jar on another shelf as he fell past, and realized he seemed to be falling in slow motion. Shortly after he realized this, he started to fall faster. He began to feel afraid again, but before he could get too worked up, he landed somewhat softly on a smooth surface. He sat up, glad that he wasn't hurt, then realized that it felt as if his hair was standing straight up in the air. That couldn't be right-

The next moment he fell to the ground with a yelp. He looked up and realized that he had somehow been sitting on the ceiling.

 _That's so very strange. How is that even possible?_

He looked around, finding himself in a room with striped walls and several doors.

 _A way out!_

He ran around the room, trying every door, but they were all locked and there was no key in sight in the little room.

 _No… No no no no…_

He was trapped, and he didn't like it. It brought back memories, memories of being trapped in his cell, trapped with _them_ -

He frantically ran around, desperately trying the locked doors, panicking and in tears, until he tripped over something and fell to the floor. He looked back and saw a tiny curtain at the bottom of the wall. He moved over to it, wiping his eyes, and pulled it aside to reveal a door, just the right size for perhaps a mouse to get through. He tried to open it anyway, and unsurprisingly it was locked. He sighed and sat up, hiding his face in his hands for a moment. When he looked up, a glass table had appeared in the room, with a key sitting atop it. He got to his feet and grabbed the key, going to every normal-sized door and trying the key, but it would not unlock any of them. He then looked to the tiny door.

 _Perhaps…_

He knelt down by the small door and tried the key.

 _It… It worked! It's unlocked_!

He opened the door and laid on his stomach so he could look out the door. He saw sunlight and flowers, green grass and a stone path- a lovely garden.

 _If only I could somehow shrink._

Sitting back up, he found himself turning to look back at the glass table again, and when he did he saw a small bottle. He stood up and walked back to it, placing the key on the table and grabbing the bottle. It was a glass bottle, with golden liquid inside, and a label attached to the stopper that said, in lovely script, "DRINK ME". He was very thirsty, but hesitant. He cautiously took out the stopper and sniffed at the liquid. Nothing seemed amiss, so he slowly took a sip.

It was absolutely delicious. With the first sip, it tasted like sweetened cream. With the next, it tasted like some sort of fresh fruit, then something else familiar- _"_ _Chocolate"_ his mind supplied-

Half the bottle was gone before he realized that the tiny door he had opened was now the size of a normal door.

 _The door grew?... No, wait a moment…._ I _shrunk! I can get through the door!_

Elated, he set down the half-full bottle, then ran to the door and tried to open it, but it had gotten locked again.

 _That's alright, I have the… The key! Oh no!_

The key was still on the table, where he had left it. He tried to climb up the table leg, but the glass was far too slippery and he was still too weak to pull himself up anyway.

 _Oh no…_

He was about to give up again when he saw a box tied up with a ribbon on the floor underneath the table. He picked it up and untied the ribbon, opening the box. Inside was a small, square white thing that also seemed familiar, something good… Something sweet? There was also a note in the box that looked just like the label of the bottle, only this one said "EAT ME".

 _Eat? This white square?_

He picked up the small white thing and stared at it, thinking. Suddenly he recalled what it was.

 _Cake! This is called cake! I wonder….. I wonder if I like cake…_

He nibbled the corner of the cake.

 _It's so good… I'm so, so hungry…_

He ate the square of cake quickly, wandering back out from under the table as he did so. He was licking the frosting that had gotten on his fingers off when his head hit something hard.

 _Ow! Wait, I walked back out from under the table, so what have I hit my head on?... The ceiling?! I_ grew _!_

He looked down and around the room as best he could- it had become a bit of a tight squeeze.

 _Well, now what?_

He saw the key on the table, and the half-empty bottle.

 _That's it!_

He stooped down as best he could and took the key and bottle off the table, both of which were much, much tinier now. He downed the bottle in one sip and held tightly to the key. He felt himself shrink down until he was at the perfect height to go through the door again. He ran to it and unlocked it with the key.

 _YES!_

He opened the door, took a deep breath to steady himself, then walked into the beautiful garden, the door to the striped room closing behind him.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3: The Lamb in Wolf's Clothing

Saying Clint Barton was conflicted would be the understatement of the century. He thought, after two years, that he had for the most part put all the Loki-mind-control shit behind him, but for the past week he'd been having nightmares. Nightmares of a starved, battered, and utterly broken version of his former tormentor, sobbing and screaming for help, reaching out to Clint with too-thin hands, like a frightened child reaching for his parent. A part of him was happy with the images, thinking to himself that he hoped Loki was getting what he deserved, but the rest of him railed against it. ' _That would be too extreme, it wouldn't be right. No one deserves torture, not like that.'_

Another thing had been bothering him as well. In every nightmare he had of Loki, the demigod's eyes had practically glowed a deep emerald green, and Clint knew he had seen hints of green in Loki's eyes after the Hulk had smashed him into the floor, mixing with the bright blue that they had been while he had taken control... Clint ran a hand through his hair and sighed, hating that he was thinking about this at 6 a.m. He took another sip of coffee. Now that he thought about it, his own eyes had been the same bright blue while he had been Loki's puppet, the same blue as-

 _The same blue as the Tesseract!_

Why hadn't he realized sooner?! The pieces were all falling into place at once, and they were making a picture he didn't like. Clint grabbed his coat and ran out the door, thinking back to one instance in particular…

 _Clint stood next to Loki as the demigod oversaw the preparations for the Chitauri invasion. Suddenly Loki turned to him, his face pained and scared._

 _"_ _Sir?" Clint asked, surprised by the change. Loki grabbed Clint's sleeve in a vicelike grip, his whole body trembling._

 _"_ _Please, please help me!" Loki pleaded with him, his voice hushed but urgent. "You have to help me, I don't want to do this, please help me!"_

 _"_ _O-of course sir. What would you like me to do?" Clint responded, confused as hell but trying to use a more soothing tone to calm his "boss"._

 _"_ _Find Thor. Find Thor, or another of the- the, um- the Avengers! Yes, go find them, tell them to...t-to…" Loki suddenly slumped against him and his eyes rolled back into his head._

 _"_ _Sir?! Loki?!" Clint held onto Loki to keep him from falling to the floor and shook him slightly. "Loki! What's-"_

 _Suddenly Loki's body shuddered, and he stood up on his own again, pushing Clint away slightly, his head lowered._

 _"_ _S-sir?"_

 _Loki raised his head and looked at him, his cool demeanor back in place, his eyes a brighter blue than before. His skin had somehow gotten even paler, the rings under his eyes darker._

 _"_ _Forget this conversation happened, Barton. That is an order," he said firmly._

 _Clint nodded. "Of course Sir."_

Loki, or whatever had been controlling Loki, had ordered him to forget the incident.

 _Damnit._

Clint took out his phone and called Tony.

 _"_ _Hello, genius millionaire playboy Tony Stark speaking."_ Clint could practically hear the smirk Tony no doubt had on his face. Clint rolled his eyes.

"Tony, this is important."

 _"_ _Aw, come on, can't you at least greet me nicely?"_

"Tony." Clint said in warning.

 _"_ _Okay okay, what's got your panties in a twist Katniss?"_

"It's about Loki." There was silence for a few seconds.

 _"_ _Loki? I thought you'd gotten past that for the most part, especially after you forbid the rest of us from talking about him around you-"_

"Tony-"

 _"_ _Wait, he's not there, is he? Should I call SHEILD and-"_

"Tony!"

 _"_ _What?!"_

"Tony, we were wrong." Clint said as he climbed into his car.

 _"_ _What? Whataya mean, we were wrong? Wrong about what?"_

"We were wrong about Loki, about the invasion, everything. I'll explain when I get there."

 _"_ _Um… Okay, but if you're gonna explain when you get here, why'd you call me?"_

"To make sure you're there when I get there. Stay put." Clint hung up, cutting off whatever reply Tony would give. He sped through the next three red lights, not caring. He didn't even know why he cared so much, or why it was so urgent to him, but he couldn't stand the idea of an innocent man trapped in prison, or worse, even if he had violated his mind. Clint hoped that maybe Tony would tell him he was wrong, that he could prove to Clint that Loki really was a horrible, evil supervillain and Clint could go back to simply hating him. And if Tony couldn't, maybe Bruce could, or Steve, or _anyone_ , because if he was right, then they had sent a victim to be punished, to be damned for eternity. If they couldn't prove him wrong, if he was _right_ …. Clint clenched his jaw and sped up more. If his theory was right, then they needed to fix what they had done wrong.

 _Damnit all._


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4: The Ace of (BROKEN) Hearts

Tony put down the phone. _Of course_ Clint had to come over and rant about Loki again, when he had been hoping to keep him away for a while. Not that he didn't love having friends around, but he didn't want the archer involved in the current… Situation. The situation being that Loki had been missing from his cell in Asgard for nearly the entire past two years, although Thor had only thought to come and tell them about it two months ago. Loki, the bastard, had somehow disappeared from his cell a month after his imprisonment and no one on either realm had seen or heard anything from him since.

Tony ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "Jarvis?"

 _"_ _Yes sir?"_

"Any word from Thor on the Loki situation?"

 _"_ _No sir."_

Suddenly a very loud crash came from the roof.

"Let me guess, that's Thor."

 _"_ _Indeed sir. He is making his way to this floor now."_

"He probably made another dent in my roof. It's not like I wanted a nice, flat, structurally sound roof anyway-"

The elevator opened and Thor walked into the room, looking grim.

"Thor, hey buddy! Any word on Loki?"

Thor shook his head, his expression changing to that of a kicked puppy.

"No, I'm afraid not. I…. I fear something may have happened to him, Man of Iron."

"It's just 'Tony' buddy, and I'm sure he's fine. I'm sure he's more than fine, he's probably just hiding somewhere far away and planning to kill us all while evil-laughing," Tony said as he poured another glass of scotch. Come to think of it, Clint had said something about being 'wrong' about Loki. Whatever the hell that was supposed to mean.

Thor slumped into a chair. "I suppose you are most likely right, and yet, I cannot help but feel a sense of foreboding." Tony took a gulp of his alcohol. He really did _not_ need to deal with the Clint-Loki crap _and_ a melodramatic demigod today.

"Thor, we'll find him. Okay? And if we don't, maybe he'll just stay gone forever, which would be great cuze personally I would be ay-okay with never seeing that bastard again-"

Tony realized that was the wrong thing to say when Thor turned and gave him an icy glare.

"Take care how you speak of my brother," he said in a low, warning tone. Tony held his hands up.

"Jeez, sorry. Don't hammer-bash me okay? I need my pretty face."

Thor settled in the chair again, staring out the window at the cloudy sky. A heavy silence fell over the room and Tony had no fucking clue what to say to make it go away, so the two just stayed in silence until Clint arrived an hour later.

 _"_ _Sir, master Barton has arrived and is currently in the elevator."_ Thor looked at Tony.

"Barton is coming? I thought you wished to keep him out of this matter."

"I _do_. He called me today, telling me he was coming over because we were "wrong about Loki", whatever that's supposed to mean," Tony said, making quotation marks with his fingers. Thor sat up straighter.

"Wrong? Do you think he knows something?" he asked, both eager and worried. Tony shrugged.

"I dunno-"

Just then the elevator opened. "Tony-" Clint paused when he saw Thor.

"Oh, hey Thor, you're here too. That's good. Look, we need to talk."

"I agree," Thor said, standing. "Tony said you called him, and you wished to speak about my brother. Do you know anything about-"

"Yeah, yeah, we can talk in a minute, but first, sit down Clint, make yourself at home," Tony said, cutting Thor off and forcing to be cheerful. Thor looked confused at first as Tony practically pushed Clint onto the couch, then understanding dawned on him.

Tony didn't want to bring up that Loki was missing, not yet.

Tony grabbed his glass and sat down across from Clint. Thor sat down beside Clint on the couch.

"Ya need a drink there buddy? You kinda look like you do," Tony offered. Clint shook his head.

"No thanks Tony," he ran a hand through his hair and sighed. This had seemed like such a better idea a little while ago, but now, if he said what he thought out loud, he'd probably sound crazy. But if there was a chance he was right, he didn't have much of a choice. After a moment of thinking exactly how to go about this, he turned to Thor.

"Thor, what color are your brother's eyes?" he asked, although it didn't sound like a question. Thor blinked.

"What?"

"Just humor me, Thor."

"Loki's eyes are green, like the purest emeralds," Thor answered, still confused. Clint nodded.

"I thought you'd say that."

"Clint, what does that have to do with anything?" Tony asked. Clint turned back to him.

"When Loki – when my mind was controlled, my eyes were bright blue, when clearly they're brown normally. When Loki was attacking New York-"

"His eyes were the same blue," Tony finished for him, understanding dawning on him. "… Shit." He wanted to smack himself- if Clint was right about this, then some genius he was – he should've figured that much out sooner. Thor was still confused.

"What significance would the color of Loki's eyes have?" he asked. "Yes they were blue during the attack, but they were changing back to green when we were about to leave Midguard."

"After Hulk smashed Loki into the floor," Tony pointed out. "And Clint snapped out of it only after Natasha kicked his ass-"

"Hey!"

"Sorry, after Natasha performed some "mental recalibration"… By kicking his ass." Tony smirked. Clint stuck his tongue out at Tony. A moment later you could practically see the lightbulb come on in Thor's head – the blonde was like an open book.

"You are suggesting that Loki was being controlled as well?!" Clint nodded solemnly.

"Yes Thor, that's exactly what I'm suggesting."

A heavy silence fell on the room for a few moments.

"Clint, that's…"

"Yeah, I know. It's… It's hard to think about." Another moment passed in silence. Then Tony got up, poured himself another drink, and drank half of it in one go.

"Clint, Loki's been missing for the past two years," he said bluntly. Clint's eyes widened.

"What?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Well, it's kinda only me and Thor who know, and he only decided it was a good idea to tell me like two months ago-"

"I felt it would be unnecessary to raise any alarms on your realm until I knew for certain that Midguard was in danger. Which it isn't-" Thor cut Clint's reply off. "I swear it isn't – I came to Tony for help. Not even Heimdall, who sees all in the Nine Realms, can find Loki. I had hoped that perhaps with his science, we would be able to locate my brother."

"Have you come up with anything yet?"

"Nope, a trace. It's like he just vanished." Tony said, frustrated. He really hated not being able to figure something out.

"Well, there are nine realms or something, right Thor? Did you check any of the others?" Clint asked.

"Heimdall can see all the Nine Realms. Loki has not appeared in any of them," Thor said sadly. Clint thought for a moment.

"There's space in between these realms, right? Is there any way that Loki could be there, just in space? I mean, that's where the Chitauri came from, and they could hide from Heimdall." Thor paused, then gave the archer a small, hopefull smile.

"I had not thought of that. It could be possible! Friend Tony, what say you?" Thor turned excitedly to the billionaire, but the other man didn't respond – he was staring out the nearby window.

"Tony?" Clint called to him. It was another moment before Tony replied.

"What if we didn't kill all of them?"

"What?"

"What if we didn't kill all the Chitauri? If they really were forcing Loki into this, and they could get ahold of him after he failed them, they wouldn't be too happy with him," Tony said bitterly. Clint frowned, remembering the nightmares he had been having recently. He quickly told the other two about them. Tony looked disgusted, and Thor looked like he was going to be sick. The thought of his baby brother being hurt so badly – he couldn't stand it.

"We must rescue Loki. I cannot allow him to be hurt so!" Thor stood, ready to leave in search of his brother once again, but Clint stopped him.

"Thor, calm down, we have to make a plan for this, okay? We're gonna help you, but… we really should get the others in on this, alright?"

"We cannot wait that long! Loki could be dying!" Thor shouted.

"And if you just fly off to go find him, it could take you far too long, and he'd be dead before you got there," Tony said. "Clint's right. We need the other Avengers, and we need a plan. It's the best chance Loki's got, buddy." Thor debated over whether or not to listen for a minute, then sighed, his shoulders slumping.

"Very well. I will heed your words, my friends." He sat back down and waited as Tony called the other three Avengers for an emergency meeting.

' _Loki, where are you?'_


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5: Going NOwhere

Flowers of every color were swaying in the light breeze, and most of them were bigger than he was. Or maybe that was because he had shrunk? The sky was gray with hazy clouds, yet bright, and here and there, gigantic trees were growing. He wandered down the stone path that lead from the little door, looking around in awe.

' _It's so beautiful here...'_

"Well now, who do we have here?"

He spun around, his heart racing in sudden fear, to see who had spoken. There was no one behind him, no one in front of him, or beside him. He blinked, confused.

 _'_ _What was that? I could've sworn I heard someone talking-'_

"Over here, dearie. No no, a little to your left there – That's the ticket!"

He was face to face with one of the flowers – Literally. The flower that had spoken, a lovely red rose, had a face, and was smiling at him.

"Who might you be, dear?" The rose asked kindly. He swallowed, nervous and curious all at once. He had never heard of flowers being able to talk before, or having faces for that matter!

"I-I… D-don't know," he answered honestly. Oh, how he wished he didn't stutter so! The rose frowned, and he thought she might either be concerned or confused. He decided on both.

"You don't know? Well, it's very unusual for someone to not know their own name," she said. He looked at his feet and didn't respond to this – he simply didn't know how, although he agreed that it must be unusual indeed. After a moment, the rose spoke again.

"I'm sure it'll be alright dearie. Where is it you're trying to get to, then? Or do you not know that, either?" He shook his head. A peony close by decided then to put in her two cents.

"Well that's alright! After all, if you don't know where it is you're going, then any road will get you there! You can pick any path you like, and you'll end up _somewhere_ ," she said cheerfully. He thought on this a moment, then smiled back at her.

"I s-suppose th-that's true," he said.

"Well, at any rate, if there's something you're looking for in wherever your somewhere is, we could point you in the right direction," this came from a tiger lily behind him. "Is there anything you're looking for?"

He thought a moment. Was he looking for something? Something…

"S-someplace…. Safe," he decided, nodding to himself. Yes, that sounded right.

"Well, you'll be hard pressed to find anywhere truly safe in Underland, what with the Queen of Hearts and all, but you can go find the Hatter. That's probably best," the rose said.

"The… H-Hatter?"

"Yes dearie, the Mad Hatter! He'll help you out, I'm sure. Go on now and follow that path there-" the rose pointed with a delicate leaf down a path that lead out of the garden. "And you'll find where he lives. But be on your guard, child – the Red Queen's soldiers have been patrolling more and more these days."

He looked down the path. It lead into a thick forest, one that both intrigued him and made him nervous. Yet, he decided he should probably find this 'Hatter' anyway – if these nice flowers knew him, he couldn't be that bad, now could he? He thanked the flowers and started off down the path, towards the woods.

"Good luck!" he heard the flowers calling after him.

He waved back at them, then took a good look into the woods he was supposed to be going into. The light shone down through the trees, and down onto the stone path, which went from yellow, to pink, to red, and back to yellow again. The woods gave him a strange feeling, not a bad feeling, but odd. He took a deep breath, and slowly walked past the tree line, into the odd woods. He looked around warily as he walked down the path- he was afraid, but also quite curious. He could hear birds in the trees, and a breeze came along to rustle leaves every now and then. After a while, he started to see signs nailed to trees, some pointing to paths made by being walked on so often, others that seemed to point at nothing. The signs said things such as "here", "under", and "that way". He didn't quite understand how such signs could be of any use, but he supposed they must make sense to someone, or else they wouldn't be there. He was so caught up in looking at the signs and the trees and the birds that he nearly ran into a tree which stood at a fork in the path. He stepped back and took a good look at it.

 _'_ _How strange! How should I know where I ought to go now?'_

This tree had quite a few signs nailed to it, all still saying things like "there" and "somewhere" and even "nowhere", and all of them either pointed to the left fork or the right fork. He stood there a good long while, trying to figure out which path would take him to the Hatter. He had an uneasy sort of feeling, like he was being watched. He looked up. There was a pair of bright eyes, peering at him through the leaves. He jumped back, alarmed. He scrambled back a bit more and was going to turn to run, when the owner of the eyes spoke.

"Now now, don't be frightened of little ol' me," it said, a low voice accompanied by a large, toothy grin, like a crescent moon. It moved out of the dark branches and into the light. It was a rather large cat.


End file.
